Thoughts on Popular Culture and Unpopular Culture by Jaime J. Weinman (email me)

Monday, May 26, 2008

Kon Wiki

I love Wikipedia entries on popular culture, and particularly the fact that it creates an opportunity for big fans to enter information that only big fans would know. A Wikipedia entry on a television character often has access to editors who have seen all the episodes and therefore can create a really full and complete character "history."

That's why, even though my first inclination is to be a little disturbed by a list of all the scientific inventions created by Steve Urkel on Family Matters, I actually think it's good that the fans of a show, whatever the show may be, will take the time to enter that kind of info in Wikipedia. Did you remember that the formula that transformed Steve Urkel into Stefan Urquelle was called "Boss Sauce?" Because I didn't. And now I know.

...as they travel through history in a time machine, trying, as narrator Wolfman Jack put it, “...to get back to 1957 Milwaukee,” placing the temporal abduction sometime in late Season 2 or early Season 3 of the live-action series.

Okay, trying to fit the events of a cartoon with dogs and time machines within the continuity of a live-action series that never could remember what year it was set in... that may be going a little too far. But only a little, I hasten to add. I honestly am not being sarcastic when I say I wouldn't make fun of anyone for adding detailed information about a show, or any other work of pop culture, to Wikipedia. That's what Wikipedia was made for.